Mid-Level Platform Engineer (Kubernetes)

Darktrace; Cambridge; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

23 days holiday + public holidays

Birthday day off

Private medical insurance for you and:

Life insurance 4x base salary

Salary sacrifice pension

Enhanced family leave

Confidential Employee Assistance Prog.

Cycle to work scheme

Job summary

Darktrace in Cambridge is seeking a Mid-level Platform Engineer to design, build, and maintain the Kubernetes-based infrastructure and automation powering our AI-driven security platform. This hands-on role focuses on tooling, reliability, and scalable deployments.

You will run Kubernetes clusters, implement CI/CD pipelines, and advance IaC with Terraform and CloudFormation, while embedding security into platform design and guiding other teams on best practices.

Qualifications

• Strong Kubernetes experience in production environments.
• Knowledge of networking, storage, RBAC, and workload scheduling.
• Familiarity with Terraform and CloudFormation; Infrastructure as Code.
• Understanding of networking and security principles.

Responsibilities

• Run and evolve Kubernetes clusters across multiple environments with reliability and performance.
• Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines to accelerate software delivery.
• Drive infrastructure-as-code practices using Terraform or CloudFormation.
• Embed security into platform design and coach teams on best practices.
• Collaborate with teams to coordinate changes across components.

Skills

Kubernetes orchestration

CI/CD tooling

Infrastructure as Code

Cloud-native platforms

Security-aware design

Tools

Terraform

CloudFormation

GitHub Actions

GitLab CI

Jenkins

Prometheus

Grafana

Job description

Darktrace is a global leader in AI for cybersecurity that keeps organizations ahead of the changing threat landscape every day. Founded in 2013, Darktrace provides the essential cybersecurity platform protecting nearly 10,000 organizations from unknown threats using its proprietary AI.

The Darktrace Active AI Security Platform™ delivers a proactive approach to cyber resilience to secure the business across the entire digital estate – from network to cloud to email. Breakthrough innovations from our R&D teams have resulted in over 200 patent applications filed. Darktrace’s platform and services are supported by over 2,400 employees around the world. To learn more, visit http://www.darktrace.com.

Job D** escription **:

As a Mid-level Platform Engineer in R&D, you’ll join the Platform Team to design, build, and maintain the foundational infrastructure, tooling, and automation that product teams rely on to develop and deliver software efficiently. This is a hands‑on role, if you enjoy making developers’ lives easier through great tooling, automation, and rock‑solid Kubernetes‑based infrastructure, we’d love to hear from you.

Please note this is a hybrid positions, and would require 2 days per week in the Cambridge office.

What will I be doing:

As a Mid-level Platform Engineer within the Platform Team, you will be responsible for running and evolving our Kubernetes platform across multiple environments, ensuring applications are deployed reliably at scale. Your deep experience with container orchestration and cloud-native tooling will be central to everything you do. You will support development teams in optimising their use of public cloud resources and assist with the transition of new applications to production. Additionally, you will be responsible for:

• Collaborating with development teams to ensure infrastructure meets their requirements while promoting scalable, cloud‑native application practices,
• Operating and improving Kubernetes clusters day‑to‑day, with a focus on reliability, observability, and performance,
• Building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines to accelerate software delivery,
• Driving infrastructure‑as‑code practices using tools like Terraform or CloudFormation,
• Staying current with the cloud‑native ecosystem, introducing pragmatic solutions to the team, and addressing operational challenges through automation,
• Embedding security into platform design and coaching other teams on best practices,
• Designing solutions and services with security controls engineered to mitigate threats,
• Managing service components to ensure they meet business needs and key performance indicators,
• Liaising with other team members to coordinate changes across components

What experience do I need:

You should have strong Kubernetes experience, at least two years operating, troubleshooting, and scaling clusters in production environments. You should be comfortable with networking, storage, RBAC, and workload scheduling. Familiarity with infrastructure provisioning tools such as Terraform and CloudFormation, along with Infrastructure as Code methodologies, is important. A good understanding of networking and security principles is crucial, as is the ability to solve problems and analyse patterns in behaviour and logs.

Additional qualifications include:

• Experience with continuous integration systems such as GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and Jenkins,
• Proficiency in working with source control systems,
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with fluency in English both in written and verbal forms.

Nice to have:

• Scripting or programming ability (Python, Bash, Go, or similar) — useful for building tooling and automation but not a prerequisite,
• Experience with observability stacks (Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry),
• Familiarity with service mesh, GitOps workflows, or platform-as-a-product thinking.

Benefits:

• 23 days’ holiday + all public holidays, rising to 25 days after 2 years of service,

• Additional day off for your birthday,

• Private medical insurance which covers you, your cohabiting partner and children,

• Life insurance of 4 times your base salary,

• Salary sacrifice pension scheme,

• Enhanced family leave,

• Confidential Employee Assistance Program,

• Cycle to work scheme.